Latest market data

Stock search

Anne Ricci was overwhelmed--an all-too-common state for an office
manager at a fast-growing startup. This year alone, her San
Mateo, Calif.-based company, big-data firm Platfora, has
increased its staff from 37 to 60 (and still hiring ).
With each new employee, Ricci has more to do, from filling
printers and stocking pens to maintaining the kitchen and making
coffee. She needed help.

But instead of calling traditional temporary-staffing firms like
Kelly Services or Manpower, she used San Francisco-based
TaskRabbit, a low-cost, online-based take on the traditional
temp-services model, to bid out her need for part-time help for
an indeterminate length of time.

"As a growing company, we are conscious about overstaffing or
understaffing," says Ricci, who ultimately settled on a kitchen
helper to come in three mornings per week. "The reason we went
with TaskRabbit was for the flexibility to fill that role."

The Temp Team
In March, TaskRabbit--available in most major metro
areas--linked services with New York City-based Fancy Hands,
which provides a different take on short-term help. As opposed
to TaskRabbit's in-person services, Fancy Hands has temps who
are located remotely and can handle quick jobs via phone or
e-mail, such as planning and coordinating meetings, doing
light data entry or tackling online research. The combination
of TaskRabbit and Fancy Hands has created a full-fledged
resource for short-term workers of nearly every stripe and
project description. For many cash-strapped entrepreneurs,
these online hiring services are making short-term help an
affordable option.

While their systems may work together, the companies have
different approaches to the ultra-short-term labor market. On
TaskRabbit's website and mobile app, clients post jobs that can
be bid on by 12,000 vetted workers. By connecting a LinkedIn
profile to a TaskRabbit account, a worker can share a résumé and
feedback received from previous jobs. Clients can communicate
with applicants through TaskRabbit's messaging system; once a
person is selected, the service does all the behind-the-scenes
work, such as filing W-2s or 1099s and handling payroll, workers'
compensation and taxes.

"We're transparent about our fees on both sides," says Anne
Raimondi, TaskRabbit's chief revenue officer. "So it's easy for
everybody to see what the [worker] will make, what we make and
then what the total amount the client pays is."

Fancy Hands, meanwhile, is a subscription service that provides a
set amount of tasks per month for a flat fee, starting at $25 for
five requests. Its automated system uses an algorithm to
estimate the time and effort necessary to complete a task. Easier
jobs, like sending e-mails or booking appointments, are executed
by the service itself, while more difficult requests, like
proofreading or setting up spreadsheet files, are performed by
the more than 5,000 workers hired by Fancy Hands. The
algorithm also determines the price paid out per task.
Because its software does much of the work, the company can keep
costs down and reduce human error.

"People tend to forget to do things here and there when it comes
to hiring temps," says Fancy Hands founder Ted Roden. "Our
computers do not."

Businesses like TaskRabbit and Fancy Hands are especially popular
among startups and fast-growing technology firms that use them to
schedule flexible administrative support or compile and stuff
mailings. Some even use them to engage in corporate
mischief--people have hired TaskRabbit to prank their co-workers
by wrapping their desks in cellophane.

Helping Hands
TaskRabbit launched in 2008 as a personal-errand business,
helping the overscheduled with grocery shopping or waiting for
the cable guy. The company came about after founder Leah Busque
realized she was out of dog food just as she was leaving to go
out to dinner. She thought it would be great if there were a
place online where she could say that she needed dog food and
name the price she was willing to pay to have it delivered--if
only there were an app to facilitate the exchange.

Similarly, Roden had a full-time job, a baby and a book deal
lined up when he decided to start Fancy Hands in 2010. The
impetus: He wanted to take his wife out to dinner but couldn't
find the time to call and make a reservation. "Rather than make a
simple phone call, I built an elaborate system to do it for me,"
Roden says.

Both companies eliminate the middleman of traditional staffing
firms and, as a result, can offer significantly lower rates to
their clients. "The markup in traditional temp agencies is quite
high," says TaskRabbit's Raimondi. "Whereas ours is between 20
and 26 percent, temp agencies are anywhere from 40 to 80
percent."

Fancy Hands and TaskRabbit have seen a steady increase in clients
(though both declined to reveal customer or revenue information)
as they benefit from a boom in the temporary staffing industry.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 2009
and 2012, temporary staffing firms added more than 786,000 jobs
to the economy; this translated into $98.3 billion in revenue
last year.

"Temporary workers are only becoming more popular because
benefits have gotten so expensive for companies," says Cathy
Reilly, a human resources veteran and author of The Temp Factor.
"So this was an easy solution to manage those costs and yet
maintain a level work force to meet the needs."